A blank check with money promised from the estate of Louise Patricia Tolan Cox was presented to the staff of LIFE Center for Independent Living recently. They don’t know how much money the organization will be receiving, but they know exactly how it is to be used.

Daniel Fry, trust officer at the Bank of Pontiac, said, “Mrs. Cox most generously included in her will significant funds to help persons who are blind to be able to get wheelchairs or lead dogs if needed. The trust committee was most pleased to find LIFE Center, which already serves persons who are blind or have other disabilities. They are well qualified to administer this bequest in the manner that Mrs. Cox wanted.”

LIFE Center for Independent Living, which has offices in Pontiac and Bloomington, will be able to use these funds beginning this month.

Gail Kear, executive director of LIFE CIL, explained that Cox was very specific in her will about where the money would go.

“The intent of the bequest was very specific that Mrs. Cox wanted the money to be used to assist persons who are blind who also need a wheelchair or who need a trained lead dog. How this has been worked out and defined in collaboration with Mrs. Cox’s attorney with the bank trust committee that is administering this, the term ‘wheelchair’ could include a manual wheelchair, a power wheelchair, power scooters, or repairs or replacement parts for any of those things. This includes persons who are both legally blind and need a wheelchair or persons who are legally blind and would need a guide dog or an assist dog,” she explained.

The money doesn’t have to go to equipment only, though.

“Funds can be used for someone who is fairly newly blind who does not have the orientation or mobility skills that they need in order to be able to successfully complete learning how to use their guide dog and navigate out in public with their dog. We can use these funds to pay for professional orientation and mobility skills training if needed,” Kear explained. “There may be some other direct or indirect expenses that one may incur that they need to go to a guide dog school.”

Kear said that guide dogs enable a person who is blind to safely navigate within their community but an assistance dog can be trained to help his or her owner who is blind and perhaps maybe using a wheelchair to assist them in maybe opening a door or retrieving things that may have been dropped or things of that sort that they may not be physically able to do. These are very specifically trained dogs that are not pets.

Page 2 of 3 - Kear said she didn’t know of any association Cox had with LIFE CIL or any other similar organizations.

“Mrs. Cox has never, to my knowledge, had any association or interaction with LIFE Center for Independent Living. She had put in her will language that she wanted a not for profit organization in Illinois to be identified that could do that type of work and it happened that a member of the bank’s trust committee had recently attended a presentation at the Pontiac Rotary Club in which one of my staff members who provides services to people who are blind, was talking about her program and he remembered that when the will came across his desk and he knew he needed to identify an organization that was qualified to do this type of work and they remembered that and contacted us and interviewed us at length to be sure that we would be the right people,” she said.

She said that, although LIFE CIL isn’t sure the amount they will be given from the estate, they were told they would be “quite pleased.”

“I can’t really give a good estimate of people we may be able to help because I don’t have an exact amount and the needs of each individual that approach us can be very different,” she said.

Her attorney, Taylor Johnson of Johnson & Taylor, Attorneys at Law, painted a picture of a woman from the Cropsey and Colfax area, who found herself very financially sound, outliving her husband and leaving their combined monies to multiple charities.

“ It is my understanding is that she used to work for the state of Illinois. She was retired. She and her husband married late. They had no children. She passed away March 24, 2012,” Johnson explained.

He said that the Cox’s home and land have been sold and the money from the sales will benefit several charities throughout the nation.

“That idea was not something new. It had been around for awhile. She was very interested in helping people and when she perceived an issue, was similar to something that she had an interest in, she wanted to help them out. There were a number of charities, well, basically everything went to charities in her will and they’ve been there for a good many years,” he said.

Not only is LIFE CIL benefiting from the Cox estate, but St. Joseph’s Home and St. Francis Convent in Springfield, the Mayo Clinic, the VA Medical Center Therapy Department in Danville, Salem Children’s Home in Flanagan, the Catholic Diocese of Peoria and a multitude of others are also.

“With respect to this particular group, they were not named in the will. The will specifically says one share to an Illinois charitable organization providing services to the blind to be selected by my executor and to be used for wheelchair or trained lead dogs for a blind person or persons,” Johnson explained. “I can’t even tell you how much it’s going to be. I can say the distribution coming up in the next few days will be somewhere around $170,000 and maybe as much as $200,000 by the time we get done. This group does the things that this is available for on a shoestring and it will probably take them a good many years to use the money. It’s great that we were able to find something that would cover this part of Illinois.”

Page 3 of 3 - “We are grateful to Louise Patricia Tolan Cox for her generous bequest,” said Kear. “It will help many persons who are blind, who need wheelchairs or guide dogs or assist dogs. Wheelchairs are expensive and it can be hard to get the money to purchase or repair one. Guide dogs and assistance dogs are often provided free of charge to persons who are blind but there may be other costs associated with going to guide dog school that the person cannot afford. We’re so pleased that Mrs. Cox has made it possible for us to help them.”